ebox44 Posted August 9, 2018 WE NEED LEGO Digital Designer Pro!!! The LEGO Group is no longer developing or even supporting LDD. I assume this is because it wasn't financially sustainable. In a few years the LDD version that is still available now may become increasingly difficult to find, and worse, may be obsolete with newer operating systems. I also realize that a majority of designers might prefer MLCad with the LDraw Library because it is superior to LDD in many ways. But not in every way! I mean no disrespect to MLCad, Ldraw, thier creators or users. These are AFOLs who wanted to give us something great, and they did! That said, I think LLD bricks and models look better, and more realistic. Since they were created by The Lego Group, they are arguably more accurate ( I did say arguably). Unless someone can correct me, in MLCad, you cannot manipulate bricks in the 3D view pane. This is very frustrating for me because I like to work quickly while I'm inspired. LDD feels a lot more like you are handling real bricks. I can't pretend to know anything about the financial concerns of The LEGO Group, but it at least seems plausible that a professional version of LDD which sells for maybe $200 could pay for its own development. Digital products are certainly inexpensive to distribute and virtually free to 'manufacture'. These days, AFOLs, children and educators have proven to be willing to spend hundreds of dollars on LEGO sets, so why wouldn't they be willing to spend that much for software? The cost would be justified by improving some of the features of LDD that are weak and adding new features, some of which could be inspired by MLCad. Then we could have the best of both worlds! If anyone reading this agrees with me, please respond and maybe we can start a campaign to convince The LEGO Group that this idea is worth pursuing, They have already put a lot of resources into developing LDD and even with its shortcomings, I still love it! It would be a shame to let this code go to waste instead of continuing to develop it! I hope you're with me. WE NEED LDD Pro!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SylvainLS Posted August 9, 2018 25 minutes ago, ebox44 said: Unless someone can correct me, in MLCad, you cannot manipulate bricks in the 3D view pane. You can with newer LDraw editors, like LDCad or LeoCAD. And you can with Stud.io, which is, arguably , LDraw-based. 26 minutes ago, ebox44 said: Digital products are certainly inexpensive to distribute and virtually free to 'manufacture'. Er, not really, no 28 minutes ago, ebox44 said: […] so why wouldn't they be willing to spend that much for software? Because they prefer to spend it on bricks? Because there are free alternatives? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
supertruper1988 Posted August 9, 2018 With Stud.io out now LDD is useless to many builders. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1963maniac Posted August 9, 2018 I'm an MLCAD & LPUB3D user. Yes, Lego get us an updated version of LDD!! Creating in digital and then building in real plastic causes the need to buy more LEGOS. The desire to share our creations and the desire for others to build it, requires a way to easily make building instructions. I VOTE YYYEEESSSS!!!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy D Posted August 10, 2018 Since we are discussing alternatives to LDD, I a wondering what design software will run on the Mac OS? also how about converter programs from LDD to some other application on Mac OS as well. I realize that most of the applications run on Windows only, but I'm not going to get a new Windows computer just for LEGO. Andy D Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
supertruper1988 Posted August 10, 2018 2 minutes ago, Andy D said: Since we are discussing alternatives to LDD, I a wondering what design software will run on the Mac OS? also how about converter programs from LDD to some other application on Mac OS as well. I realize that most of the applications run on Windows only, but I'm not going to get a new Windows computer just for LEGO. Andy D I use Stud.io and LDD on my Mac Pro and Macbook Pro with 0 issues. Stud.io has a really good LXF importer but it does not retain the sub models so I recommend "exploding" the model in LDD first then opening in stud.io and placing all the parts together. Stud.io is also much easier to move parts around in and use connections that LDD doesnt support. Then to top that off the instruction creator is pretty great. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mocbuild101 Posted August 10, 2018 Well there's certainly some extra features in LDD that we don't have access to, but I don't know if Lego will ever release them to us... BTW, I don't know if anyone else knows about this, but I recently found out that Stud.io is actually made with Unity - which theoretically means that Stud.io could be released for Android and iOS... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MatthewRC Posted August 10, 2018 14 hours ago, ebox44 said: WE NEED LEGO Digital Designer Pro!!! The LEGO Group is no longer developing or even supporting LDD. Actually, The LEGO Group is no longer supporting previous versions of LDD. If they ever release a new update for LDD, the current version (4.3.11) will no longer be supported. They’ll only support the current version. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shroud Posted August 10, 2018 I've always said a paid version of LDD would be amazing, and please please please use the GPU! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
anothergol Posted August 10, 2018 First, yeah the LDD has proven to still get updates, only they're rarer now. Second, no one is ever gonna pay big money for an LDD, and there are only a tiny handful of "pro's" who'd make enough money from the LDD to justify buying it, especially with many free alternatives. Stud.io isn't there yet but if its workflow was updated to mimic the LDD, it could end up being a good replacement. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andy D Posted August 10, 2018 13 hours ago, supertruper1988 said: I use Stud.io and LDD on my Mac Pro and Macbook Pro with 0 issues. Stud.io has a really good LXF importer but it does not retain the sub models so I recommend "exploding" the model in LDD first then opening in stud.io and placing all the parts together. Stud.io is also much easier to move parts around in and use connections that LDD doesnt support. Then to top that off the instruction creator is pretty great. Sounds good. How well does it work with Technic? Andy D Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
supertruper1988 Posted August 10, 2018 29 minutes ago, Andy D said: Sounds good. How well does it work with Technic? Andy D I wont say its perfect. I know there are issues with the way that axles and pins snap into the bricks and other plates. Its a free download so I would just take a few minutes to try it out and see if it works for you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
knotian Posted August 10, 2018 I've been using Stud.io ever since it was released. Very Happy with it and the 'integrated' instruction maker is rapidly shaking it's bugs. Two different renderers available. Aside from their reliance on 'patches' rather than complete releases I'm a believer.(It's easy enough to work around so recovery is no problem) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BrickWild Posted August 11, 2018 12 hours ago, MatthewRC said: Actually, The LEGO Group is no longer supporting previous versions of LDD. If they ever release a new update for LDD, the current version (4.3.11) will no longer be supported. They’ll only support the current version. Exactly. A new version is usually released once a year in most cases. All we need is patience and no bickering, squabbles, dramas, dummy-spits, etc. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shroud Posted August 11, 2018 Stud.io was actually pretty good I just tried it, the fact it rendered in POV Ray with a click of the button was awesome. I've only imported lxf's atm and the Bricklink buy all option was actually decent. I'll try and build with it soon. What Pro's do you speak of that use LDD? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ebox44 Posted August 12, 2018 It has been correctly pointed out that the LDD download page says The LEGO Group is no longer supporting LDD version 4.3.10, and version 4.3.11 is available, so I might be wrong about them dumping it altogether. However, I can't find any way to navigate from the lego.com homepage to the LDD download page, even with their search engine. I can only find it through Google, which kind of makes me feel like they're shelving it. Even if they do make a new version of LDD, I'd still be interested in purchasing a Pro version. By 'Pro', I don't literally mean people would use it to make money. I mean something more advanced, primarily for hobbyists that would have the best features of MLCad and LDD combined. Maybe calling it 'LDD Pro' was a bad marketing strategy on my part. How about 'LDD Advanced' or something else. What do you all think? From this forum, I just heard about Stud.io, I've downloaded it and it looks very good, but I haven't had a chance to learn it. If it isn't the best one yet, it certainly has the potential to be. But I'm also not against having even more choices for LEGO design software. Competition benefits all of us. And competition isn't just about money. There's pride in knowing you produce the best product. LEGO bricks are the product of The LEGO Group, they should have the best software, and they could, provided it was at least profitable. This is the question. I'm not sure anyone on this forum really knows how many people would be willing to pay for advanced LEGO design software, or how much they'd be willing to pay. That's what I'm trying to find out. I read that employees at LEGO use Siemens NX (Solid Works+Pro Engineer) for design. This would be overkill for most hobbyists. But who knows, maybe The LEGO Group could develop a platform that would work for some of their employees as well as for hobbyists. I don't know what's going to happen, but I don't see any harm in imagining the possibilities. Isn't that what LEGO is all about? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
anothergol Posted August 12, 2018 13 minutes ago, ebox44 said: By 'Pro', I don't literally mean people would use it to make money. I mean something more advanced, primarily for hobbyists yeah but you also suggested a price (200$) that's the one of "pro" software that's only justified when you make money from it Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ebox44 Posted August 13, 2018 13 hours ago, anothergol said: yeah but you also suggested a price (200$) that's the one of "pro" software that's only justified when you make money from it I don't believe that's true for everyone, certainly not me. I don't have a lot of money but I've spent more than $200 on bricks. I'd be willing to spend that much on really good software that would let me design a hundred huge crazy models that I could never afford to buy the bricks to build. The free software that's available is good but I'd be willing to buy something better. I don't know how many other people feel the way I do, but we know there are lot of LEGO fans out there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
